Pull the Devil Down
by Gandalf The Gay
Summary: He's a genius and she's far less enigmatic than she would like to think. Can two people really be happy together when one knows everything about the other just by looking? Spencer / OC
1. one

**This is an idea that has been bugging me for a while, so I thought I'd put it all down in words to get it out of my head for once. I know that Spencer / OC has been done to death more than anything else, but I hope to put a unique twist on it. I hope you enjoy!**

**Please review so I know what needs improving. Thanks for reading!**

* * *

Had he been in a different position, and had he not been the modest and easily embarrassed individual that he was, Spencer would have enjoyed staring at the poor girl's chest in front of him. But seeming as he was in fact Doctor Spencer Reid - last time he checked, of course - and the circumstances of which this particular situation had come about were not romantic in the slightest, it was not enjoyable for either party involved.

Mentally separating himself from the present circumstances for a brief moment, Spencer analyzed it objectively. This much he was sure of: he had entered The Happy Bean café at 7:45am, he had ordered his long black - the largest the café sold - and turning around to add some sugar at the condiments station, he had spun around into a very shocked looking woman, knocking her beverage all over her chest.

"Shit, that's hot." Spencer was brought back into reality by the quiet exclamation of the small brunette woman in front of him, the very same woman whom he had been inadvertently staring at only moments ago. She looked down at the soiled item of clothing, frantically swiping at it with her free hand.

"God, I'm so sorry!" He answered somewhat in horror. Trying to be ever the helpful individual, Spencer reached out at the bench for a wad of napkins. He went to blot out the spilled beverage, before stopping himself.

_No Spencer, you've basically assaulted a young woman by throwing hot liquid on her. You don't want to take it a step further by touching her in an inappropriate place._

Noticing his hesitation, the woman reached out and grabbed the napkins and dabbed at her shirt, sighing a little. Her haste was understandable, what with her skin burning and everything.

"It's fine, really. I shouldn't have been standing so close. Besides, these things are designed to withstand a whole lot worse than tea." She replied, looking up at him. At first, Spencer didn't really understand, until he realized that she was wearing hospital scrubs. Spencer smiled slightly. She didn't seem all that angry about it.

"Still, I feel horrible about it." He replied, rubbing the back of his neck in shame.

"It's really fine. It was only tea; it'll dry right off." The woman paused, her dark eyes meeting his lighter ones. "You know, if you feel so terrible about it, feel free to buy me a new one. I still have a bit of time before I start work."

"Oh. Like, buy you a drink, buy you a drink?" The woman found this amusing, giving Spencer a slight giggle.

"Well, you did just spill hot tea all over me, so replacing that would be the be the least you could do." Placing the remnants of her beverage in a nearby trashcan, she continued. "But yes, I do mean buy me a drink. I had a ginger and lemongrass tea and I'll be sitting right over there."

The woman smiled as she pointed to an empty booth in the corner, and with one look back to Spencer, went to claim it. Spencer smiled slightly as he turned away to order her tea. From what he could gather, she had offered to spend more time with him over coffee even after he had spilled her tea all over her scrubs. But then again, despite being an FBI profiler he wasn't the best at reading social cues so this could be completely different from reality. Never the less, armed with two hot drinks, he made his way over to the woman, who smiled brightly when he approached.

"Thanks for that." She said, accepting the tea from Spencer. He smiled back.

"It was the least I could do, remember?" He sat down opposite her in the booth as she laughed in response.

"Right." She took a sip of her tea before nodding. "This is definitely my favorite. So uh, what's your name, anyway?"

"Doc- uh, Spencer Reid." Out of habit, he began to address himself as doctor, but he stopped himself. Somehow, in the company of this woman, it felt like bragging. He looked up at the aforementioned woman, but her expression hadn't changed. It still seemed like she was enjoying herself. She was young, too young to be a medical doctor, despite her scrubs. She wore no makeup and the dark circles under her eyes were prominent. She was overworked then, if she had no time to sleep adequately, and the lack of makeup indicated she had been working in her field for at least a couple of months. Medical personnel, especially females, learned after a while that the cons far outweighed the pros in concerns of makeup. Considering her friendly personality, it was much more likely that she was a nurse rather than a doctor.

"It's nice to meet you, Spencer Reid. I'm Elena." The woman - now known to be Elena - smiled fondly as she took another sip of her tea that she had cupped in her hands.

"Likewise." After a small silence, Spencer spoke again, rather abruptly. "Did you know that surgeons didn't wear specialized garments until well into the 20th Century? In fact, the surgeon would simply wear his own clothing, with a butcher's apron to prevent blood splatter. This is in contrast to nurses, whose uniform has been long required." He looked down to his coffee and took a large swig, while Elena's small laugh broke the silence.

"I can't say I knew that, no." She looked up at him, but his attention was focused intently on his coffee. "So, which am I?"

"Sorry?" Spencer questioned, looking up in confusion. Elena smiled.

"Which am I? Surgeon or nurse?"

"Oh, that's easy. You're a nurse." He replied, matter-of-factly. Elena smiled into her tea.

"Lucky guess." She mumbled, but she didn't seem upset about it.

"Not at all," He replied quickly, "it was a profile." Seeing the confusion on her face Spencer elaborated, telling her of his impressions based on her appearance and disposition.

"Well then, I'm impressed. So, what do you do that would need your astute powers of observation? Crime fighting?" She leaned in closer to Spencer and whispered in a low, gravely voice. "You're Batman, aren't you?" Spencer laughed whilst shaking his head.

"I'm not nearly that affluent. Or for that matter, skilled in combat. But I suppose I do fight crime. Sorta."

"That's a shame. About the not being Batman, I mean. You don't even have a butler that makes witty retorts?" The Doctor shook his head.

"Sorry to disappoint. I'm actually a profiler for the FBI." Elena's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"You say that as if it's such arbitrary fact. You might as well be Batman." Spencer wouldn't admit it, but Elena could have sworn that the man in front of her blushed slightly.

"One would say that being a nurse is just as noble." Spencer retorted gently, but Elena snorted.

"One would be wrong. It just pays the bills." She took another swig of tea. "Barely, at that."

"I'm sure it's not that bad."

"Well, I love my job but there's always this nagging feeling telling me I could have done something more with my life, you know?" Elena looked down as Spencer spoke again.

"So why didn't you?" Elena thought about this for a moment before replying.

"I suppose I was so eager to get out of the house and be my own person when I turned eighteen that I never really thought about what I'd actually do once I got there. I didn't really have any talents in any specialty areas, and nursing just sorta came to me." Spencer noticed at that moment that Elena began to play with the napkin in her hands, twisting and pulling at it anxiously. He could tell she was somewhat distressed, so he made an attempt to change the subject.

"So you've been a nurse since you were eighteen?" Elena smiled.

"Nope. By some miracle or glitch in reality, I managed to land myself a scholarship to Georgetown." She said brightly as she lay out the remnants of the napkin on the table in front of her. "I spent three years there, working on my BA in Russian Language. It was only after that time that I realised there's shit-all you can actually do with a BA in Russian." Both she and Spencer laughed lightly at that.

"So nursing it was?"

"Nursing it was." There was a small silence that followed Elena's account. Spencer contemplated what she had told him. Sure, there was much more of a market careers wise for a nurse, but that didn't mean that there wasn't a niche market for a young woman that could speak fluent Russian, especially in a place like Washington D.C. Never the less, Spencer respected the choices of the stranger in front of him and remained quiet until she spoke again.

"But please, enough about me. So what were you doing before you became an FBI profiler?" Spencer looked down at his coffee and then back up to Elena. He was suddenly very aware of the fact that what he was about to say could be considered as bragging, but as she looked at him in anticipation, he spoke.

"Well, I went to high school in Nevada, but I moved to Los Angeles to go to college."

"It was a good idea that you moved out of Las Vegas at eighteen, huh? That's probably not a good place to be a legal adult." She laughed but Spencer simply smiled nervously.

"I was actually fourteen."

A very long silence followed that declaration. Great, Spencer thought, I've gone and blown it by admitting I was some sort of alien-child prodigy. Come on, I could have lied and pretended I was a normal person.

He looked up to Elena whose face, at first, was indistinguishable. But after a few moments, she looked back at him with a large smile, her dark eyes gleaming cheerfully. She was really quite pretty when she smiled. Her aesthetics weren't something you'd notice straight away, but now that he had spent a small amount of time with Elena, he began to notice her features. While she wasn't stunningly beautiful, there was something quite pleasing about her face, especially when she smiled.

"That's… God, that's impressive. I've never met a child prodigy before." She encouraged endearingly, finishing the last remnants of her drink. "Well, then what happened?"

"Uh well, I got my first Bachelor of Science, and after that, I got three PhDs. I joined the academy after that and well, here I am I suppose."

"Huh. So you're a doctor three times over then?" Elena spoke calmly, but Spencer could tell she was trying to contain how impressed she was. Perhaps it was because she thought it would be too forward of her. If this were the case, Spencer would disagree. He found it nice to talk about it with someone who didn't look at him like he was a freak.

"Yeah, I suppose you could say that." Spencer said rather hesitantly, not wanting to push his luck. Elena looked at him, oblivious. She was still cheerful.

"Well Doctor Spencer Reid, you're certainly the most interesting person ever to throw tea on me, I'll tell you that." At that, they both laughed, Spencer looking more sheepish than he usually did.

"You mean I'm not the first?" Spencer gasped in mock horror.

"I regret that you are not the only one." Elena replied with a slight giggle. It was then that she heard a frantic beeping from her handbag next to her in the booth. She pulled the offending object out - a surprisingly new phone - cursing quietly when she read what was on the screen.

"And that's my cue to leave. One of the nurses from the last shift got sick so that means I have to come in an hour earlier." She sighed, shoving her phone back into her back, a look of disdain contorting her face. She had rather enjoyed the small liaison with Spencer and hated to cut it short. The slightly downtrodden look on his face told her that he rather felt the same way. She got up to leave and he stood out of respect. Not knowing how to politely say goodbye to someone she had known for twenty minutes, Elena simply gave a slight wave.

"It was really nice talking to you, and thanks for the tea."

"No problem."

"Oh, and I'll talk to you soon." With that, Elena turned on her heel and made a beeline for the exit. Spencer waved to her retreating form, wondering how the hell he was going to contact her again. Dejected, he sat back down at the booth, noticing a neat white napkin in stark contrast to the deep brown bench top. Picking it up, he smiled.

She had left her name and number on the back of a napkin for him. He chuckled slightly. So this is how you got a girl's attention.

All you had to do was throw tea on them.


	2. two

**And chapter two is up! There was originally more to it, however it dragged on too much. You can expect to see this carrying onto the next chapter. As always, reviews are welcome.**

**For continuity's sake, this story takes place in the four months between The Fisher King (Part 2) and P911 in season 2.  
**

* * *

She had been thinking about him all week.

Not in a hopeless romantic sort of a way - she didn't want to be pathetic - but never the less, Spencer had crossed her mind more than was necessary over the past six days. To Elena, he was intriguing and by a wide margin, one of the nicest men she had ever met, even if she had only interacted with him for a brief while. To be perfectly honest, she had seen him before every now and again while she was waiting for her train to work. He hadn't noticed her in those instances; he would just order his coffee, sit on the table by the window and leave. Elena didn't blame him. If she were him, she wouldn't notice her either.

Walking through Washington's sad excuse for a Chinatown, Elena reminisced on the past week. She worked at the hospital for a good portion of it, respectfully declining when her co-workers had asked her out for drinks on Wednesday. She didn't really drink all that much and she didn't want to be in a position where she would be asked to be designated driver, considering she didn't own a car. What she had done however was think about that strange yet magnificent man she had met over coffee that lovely morning six days ago and how that strange yet magnificent man had failed to call her.

As she crossed the street and entered a small Chinese restaurant, she thought it strange that she was so enamoured with this man. So what if he was a doctor three times over, crime fighter and certified genius, it still made no sense that she had seemingly fallen head over heels with him. Or at the very least, fallen for him just enough to obsess over why he didn't call. Elena waved to a greying woman at the front counter of the restaurant who smiled and reciprocated, even though she was at the time, already tending to a customer. The woman was Mrs. Lin and as well as owner of the small restaurant, she was also Elena's landlord.

Not wanting to bother her, Elena climbed the staircase at the back of the restaurant, eager to climb into bed and forget about the twelve-hour shift she had the rather unpleasant privilege to experience. It wouldn't have been that bad, if three patients hadn't thrown up on her in the space of an hour. Luckily, she had time to shower otherwise the train back home wouldn't have just been unpleasant for herself but for every single commuter.

Elena turned the key inside the handle of her front door and from the space of her doorway to her bed, it took only twelve steps before she was allowed to happily succumb into a state of unconsciousness. She fell onto her bed face first, letting a muffled yet satisfied groan escape her lips. Still fully clothed, Elena made no attempt to crawl under the covers. She was already beginning to fall asleep.

* * *

Leaning back on his office chair, Spencer flipped the napkin in his hands, a routine that he had taken to doing ever since he was given the small token. He had never actually called the number that Elena had left him, although he had come close to doing so yesterday. With his phone clutched in one hand, the other hovered over the keypad eager to press the sequence of numbers that would connect him to the woman whom had captured his eye not that long ago. Defeated yet again, he put the phone back in his pocket just in time, as moments later he was greeted by the face of Derek Morgan. Spencer had been acting strange ever since he had come into work after he had met with Elena and even if he worked with idiots, they would have noticed his change of behaviour.

Significantly smarter than idiots, the BAU team had most certainly noticed how Spencer was acting. Not wanting to spook him, they had left the matter well alone, deciding that if it was important, he would tell them soon enough.

"Come on Pretty Boy, we've got a case." Derek said with a slap on Spencer's back, almost throwing him forward into his desk. Spencer frantically pocketed the napkin on his desk as he looked around to see the rest of his team begrudgingly marching into the conference room. It was far to early for anyone to be happy about coming to work. With a quick look to a suspicious Derek, he followed suit and made his way to the conference room as well. The others had already started by the time he and Derek walked in.

"Sorry." He apologised to no one in particular as he bowed his head and took a seat next to Hotch and buried his nose in one of the case files strewn out on the table.

"Okay well," JJ began, her and the team's attention slowly focusing back on the case. "There have been a string of murders in Pikesville, Maryland and surrounding towns. All of them are women, all between the ages of thirty and thirty-five."

"Preferential then." Agent Hotchner remarked as he flipped though his copy of the case file.

"Extremely." JJ answered. "These four murders are identical to four cold case reports in the area. All victims were between thirty and thirty-five at the time of death, but the dates of death go as far back as eleven years ago." She hit a button on the remote for the screen, and the faces of three smiling women joined the four already there, as well as what looked like a photo of the last victim pre-autopsy, lying on the metal table with her eyes closed. Spencer raised an eyebrow.

"So only seven out of the eight victims have been identified?" He questioned.

"The Jane Doe is the first victim, murdered on September 19th, 1995. The manner of her death as well as the lack of dental records meant that she was unable to be identified until three days ago when the cold case was reopened when similarities between her death and the others." JJ went on to say. Hotch raised an eyebrow.

"What was her name?"

"Irina Petrova. She was a Russian immigrant who worked at the local pharmacy as an assistant. None of her remaining family live in Pikesville anymore, the closest geographically is her youngest daughter Lenushka Petrova in Washington DC." JJ turned her attention back to the screen but Spencer spoke up.

"Did you know that Pikesville has the twelfth highest percentage of residents born in Russia, coming in at 4.2 percent?" Derek raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not even gonna pretend that I know how you know that." Deciding to get back on the topic of the case, Hotch then spoke.

"What makes her death different from the other victims?"

"She was burned alive." Spencer answered helpfully, closing the case file. He had of course, read it already in the short time he had been sitting with the rest of his team. He would have been faster but he had other things on his mind, namely the napkin neatly folded in his hands. He opened it under the table and smiled at the name and number written on it. He would call her. Tonight, if he had to.

"So the bastard is evolving then. His kills are getting more and more precise as he hones his technique." Gideon said, a hint of disgust lacing his voice. Spencer tried not to take notice of it, but Gideon tended to be the most emotionally effected by their cases lately.

"Reid, Morgan, I want you to drive to Washington to speak to Lenushka Petrova, namely why a missing person's report was never filed. Everyone else will drive up to Maryland to the latest crime scene. We leave in ten." With that, Hotch abruptly stood and left the room. He never was a man for pleasantries. Reluctantly, the other teammates trickled out of the room until all that was left were Spencer and Derek.

"Alright kid, let's get going. We've got a long drive ahead of us." They both stood up but Spencer looked confused.

"In average traffic, it'll only take fifty minutes."

"With you in the car? Yeah, that's a long drive."

* * *

"Alright, spill." Derek all but commanded as soon as they both entered the car. He wasn't wasting any time. Although Spencer knew exactly what his teammate was talking about, he was determined to play dumb until his dying breath. Considering dumb was against his nature, he didn't pull it of extremely well.

"I uh… I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit, Reid. You've been acting strange all week. None of us wanted to say anything, in case we spook you off." He turned the key in the ignition and pulled out of the parking garage.

"I'm not a horse, I don't get spooked." Spencer crossed his arms, refusing to look Derek in the eye.

"That's beside the point. You're hiding something and I want to know what it is." Giving a small chuckle, he continued before Spencer could get another word in. "And I'd bet my car that it has something to do with that napkin you keep looking at." Spencer's eyes grew wide.

"You noticed that?"

"Kid, everyone noticed that." Derek laughed. "You work with profilers. What did you expect?" Defeated, Spencer sighed and brought the napkin out of his pocket, carefully opening it so expose the gift Elena had left him.

"Her name's Elena." Derek sneaked a quick glance at the napkin as the car came to a halt at a red light. "I met her before I came to work on Tuesday."

"Spencer Reid, lady killer." Derek laughed. "So, have you called her?"

"No, not yet."

"Spencer, what's she gonna think if you haven't called her in six days? Do you want to break this poor girl's heart?"

"No! It's not like that!" Spencer quickly retorted, visibly distressed. Derek just smiled.

"I'm just teasing you. But either way, you have to call this girl." He thought for a moment. "Unless you know, she looks uh…"

"No, she's aesthetically pleasing." Spencer said quickly. "I wanted to call her, but I don't know what to say."

"You say: Hello, this is Spencer. Sorry I was stupid and didn't call you but I would like to get together so I can enjoy your aesthetically pleasing face in person." Spencer raised an eyebrow, looking unamused.

"Morgan, that's not funny."

"Neither is leaving a pretty girl hanging."

"Look, can we please talk about something else?" Spencer said in a not so subtle attempt to chance the subject. "And could you please do me a favour and not tell the others?" Derek laughed, focusing his attention back on driving.

"Alright pretty boy, whatever you say."

* * *

A knock at her front door woke her from her state of unconsciousness. Elena hated being a light sleeper and having her bed so close to the front door wasn't helping her in her quest for peace and quiet. She groaned into her pillow, realising that she was still dressed in her ugly green scrubs and sneakers. Sleepily lifting her head to look at her alarm clock, she came to the depressing realisation that she had only be sleeping for twenty minutes.

"Just a minute!" She croaked weakly as she forced herself into a sitting position, lest she fall asleep and leave her potential house guests waiting at the door. Why anyone would want to visit was beyond her, but Elena decided not to punish them by waiting, whoever they were. Making the short trip to the door, she opened it to greet whoever it was.

"Can I help you?" She asked the figures, unrecognisable in her sleepy haze. Two men stood before her, although in her sleep-induced haze she neither saw nor cared about the specifics of their appearance. She just wanted to go back to bed.

"Sorry to bother you ma'am." The tall black man addressed her, a hint of sympathy in his voice. Boy, she really must have looked like crap to warrant that from a complete stranger. "My name is SSA Derek Morgan and this is Dr. Spencer Reid." Well, that woke her up. Snapping out of her drowsiness, Elena looked at the man before her. There was no way this sort of thing just happened, meeting a nice guy, only for fate to trow him into your lap a week later, so to speak.

"Spencer?" She asked, dumbfounded that she was in this situation. Without sounding too clichéd, Elena was convinced at this point that she was still asleep and she was just taking part in a bizarrely life-like dream. This however, was no the case.

"Elena?" He replied, equally as shocked at she was. He began to look her up and down, convinced this wasn't real.

"This is crazy!" She said enthusiastically. "This sort of thing doesn't just happen. What are the odds, huh?"

"Well, considering all variables," Spencer went to calculate before stopping himself. "Uh, not very favourable." Elena grinned and gave a laugh, prompting Spencer to do the same. An uncharacteristically quiet Derek was just confused as to what he just witnessed. Breaking his silence, he addressed Spencer while looking at the woman in front of him.

"So this is the Elena I've been hearing so much about." He extended a hand, which Elena gratefully shook, as an embarrassed Spencer shone red.

"Uh, yeah. Elena, this is my teammate Derek Morgan."

"It's nice to meet you, Derek." Elena beamed, happy that Spencer hadn't forgotten about her and appreciated the time they spent together that he would share it with his work mates. As happy as they all were over this little reunion, there was work to be done.

"It's nice to meet you too, Elena." Their hands separated, and Elena leaned up against the doorway slightly. "We're actually looking for Lenushka Petrova. Does she live here?" Elena's face suddenly paled.

"Yeah, she does. She's me." Spencer looked confused as Elena continued. "God, I haven't been called Lenushka in five years."

"But your name's Elena."

"It's a diminutive of Lenushka. Russian names really don't make sense in English."

"Is there a reason why you don't go by Lenushka anymore?" Derek asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I immigrated to America when I was ten. I was already that strange girl who didn't speak English. I didn't need an embarrassing name like Lenushka to make it even easier for the bullies." Elena replied with a nostalgic smile on her face.

"Miss Petrova, may we come inside?" Derek took note of Elena's story but didn't reply. He was already back in FBI mode and they had a job to do.

"Uh, of course. "She said, stepping away from the doorway to let them it. "May I ask what this is regarding?" The two FBI agents obliged in following Elena into her small living space. Spencer was the one to finally answer her.

"Elena, we're here to talk about your mother."


End file.
